THEY DANCED WITH WHO BRUNG THEM

During the past week I read story after story about how so many of New Orleans' middle and upper income residents were able to flee the city as Katrina approached, but the poor were left to fend for themselves.

I even wrote the following letter to the Daily Nonpareil concerning this terrible development:

“What's really behind all the chaos in New Orleans? A question I've pondered, while reading several recent Daily Nonpareil stories.

Why didn't the people in the Superdome make any effort to organize themselves? Why didn't they at least try to clean the squalor they had created? Why didn't groups of men patrol the restrooms to prevent rapes?

We have gone a long way in the past 50 years to creating a dysfunctional society where self reliance, pride in one's self and a sense of right and wrong are no longer esteemed or even valued. We have allowed our government and media to say to people that you are not at fault for what you do. You are victims, little children who can't look after yourselves. It is the government’s responsibility to take care of
you.

We have told our minorities that everything that goes wrong is the result of
racism. That you cannot succeed in a racist society. We have told the
dysfunctional that we will look after you no matter how egregiously you
act.

We have excused crime saying that poverty creates crime, when we all
instinctively know that it is the crime that creates poverty. We have told young
women that it okay to have babies without fathers. There is no stigma attached -
in fact if you have a baby we will shower you with money and benefits so you can
move out of your parent's house and have even more babies. Even if this
guarantees your babies will be raised in poverty. We have told young men that it
is okay to father as many children as you can. The government will assume the
father's traditional role and look after the mother and babies. And most
importantly, we have called morals old fashioned and judgmental.

What right does society have to say that something is right or wrong? And what have we gotten for this? (not to mention the $1 trillion we have spent on the poor)
Citizens who, at the first sign of trouble, stand around bewildered. You see it
on the news. Faces screaming, "Help me!" and "Tell me what to do!"

May God help us. We're now reaping what we, as a society, sowed.”

The Daily Nonpareil printed my letter on Sunday. I continue to watch the developments, and it’s easy to see that the difference here was NOT money, as the mainstream media, and liberals of all types and color would have you believe.

The difference here was attitude. It was the self-sufficient versus the dependent.

The evil rich and middle-income residents fled New Orleans because they are used to accepting the responsibility for their own welfare and safety.

The poor stayed behind because they're mired in the sludge of generation after generation of dependency on government. The accomplished class knows that they bear the responsibility for meeting their own needs and providing for their safety. The poor by-and-large bear no such responsibility. To them, it's the government's job. Instead of taking responsibility for their own safety --- they just sat there, waiting for government to come and save them.

The achievement-oriented residents of New Orleans were spared the horrors of the violence and filth that followed the flooding because they kept doing what they had been doing all along -- accepting responsibility. The poor were subjected to the violence and filth because they also kept doing what they had been doing all along -- depending on government.

Hurricane Katrina illustrated the truth behind the contention that poverty is a behavioral disorder.

God Bless,
Dan'L